EXHIBITION: Vintage Photographs | Julio Mitchel
Vintage Photographs
JULIO MITCHEL
APRIL 3 – MAY 26, 2012
Preview + Artist Talk: Thursday, April 5th, 5 – 8pm
Opening: Friday, April 6th, 5 – 9pm
We are proud to announce our upcoming exhibition of photography by photographer Julio Mitchel, opening April 6th, 2012 and running through May 26th, 2012, at Candela Books’ newly renovated gallery in downtown Richmond, Virginia.
The exhibition will open with a reception Friday, April 6th from 5-9 pm. and continue through Saturday, May 26th.
There will be a preview reception on Thursday, April 5th from 5-8 pm. At 6 pm, Mitchel will present work from his exceptional career for a small audience and answering questions about his work. Call the gallery for more info about the presentation.
[From the press release]
Born and raised in Cuba, Mitchel moved to New York at the age of seventeen and New York City has remained his home ever since though photo projects have taken him to the Middle East and Northern Ireland and other areas of conflict as well as to Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru and Brazil.
Mitchel has taken great care with the technical aspects of the medium but the greater impact lies in his humanistic depiction of the societal conditions around him. His work exhibits the requisite empathy of great documentary photographers but his vision is rendered with the aesthetic control of a fine art photographer. Indeed, as a young photographer, Mitchel sought out the great W. Eugene Smith and it is easy to see Smith’s influence upon these beautiful gelatin silver prints.
Candela will be presenting vintage prints from a major collection of Mitchel’s work entitled New York Nights, along with some select images from other bodies of work. Most of the prints exhibited were taken from the 1960s through the 1990s and depict the beauty and desolation and intrigue of the city by recording the lives of those who frequent the clubs and missions and synagogues and pool halls; and those who work the fish markets, the firemen who respond to desperate situations; the commuters on the ferries and trains and subways; the revelers and lovers at Coney Island or parading through Little Italy. These images are as diverse as the city itself but the unifying thread here is the clarity of vision and sometimes haunting intimacy of an unerring photographer combined with the craftsmanship of a great darkroom technician.
Julio Mitchel has exhibited his photography widely, including at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and other major international museums. His photography is also represented in numerous permanent collections and has twice received major artist grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. There are two monographs of Mitchel’s photography, Tu Me Amas? – which coincided with an exhibition at the IVAM Museum, Valencia, Spain – and Triptych, which coincided with major exhibitions at the Musée de L’Eysée, Lausanne, Switzerland and les Rencontres Internationales, Arles, France. Both monographs are now out of print.
Gordon Stettinius
elgordo@candelabooks.com
804.402.9261
For more information about the Julio Mitchel exhibition or any of Candela Books’ projects, please visit:
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